California Gunman Was Radicalized, Contacted Terror Suspects

By Newsmax Wires |

Federal agents have discovered preliminary evidence that San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook was in contact by phone and social media with people who had been the subject of a terrorism probe by the FBI, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

With the FBI taking the lead, investigators are scrutinizing Farook’s online communications and phone records as they try to determine a motive for the attack at a social services center in the California city, according to unnamed officials cited by Bloomberg News and CNN. The officials requested anonymity to discuss an open criminal matter.

Authorities did not dismiss other issues — including that Farook had a workplace grievance — as additional motives.

Federal authorities were trying to determine a motive for the Wednesday California massacre that killed 14 and wounded more than a dozen others even as more details emerged pointing to terrorism.

Wearing body armor and black tactical gear with GoPro cameras, Farook, 28, and wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, shot up a holiday party hosted by Farook’s employer, the county health department.

The couple launched their attack at the Inland Regional Center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles around 11 a.m., opening fire in a conference area where county health officials were having an employee banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the nonprofit center. Farook attended the event before leaving — and returning to kill.

Authorities said each attacker carried an AR-15 rifle and a pistol, and their vests were stuffed with ammunition magazines. One of the weapons was capable of piercing body armor.

All of the guns were later determined to have been legally purchased, though not by the attackers. The assault rifles were bought by a third person who is not considered a suspect, according to a senior law enforcement official,The New York Timesreports.

They fled in a black SUV and hours later died in a gunbattle with police less than two miles away.

“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.

At a press conference Thursday, the chief said there is no doubt the shooting had ‘some degree’ of planning. “Nobody gets up and does this,” he said, adding there were too many weapons, ammunition and other materials amassed for the mass shooting to be spontaneous.

According to authorities:

The couple had high-powered weapons, some could pierce body armor;

There were thousands of rounds found in the couple’s home for their weapons, including 2,500 .223-caliber rounds;

There were three pipe bombs found and detonated in the building where the shooting occurred;

There were ‘thousands’ of tools in the home that could be used to make additional bombs;

The couple wore GoPro cameras and body armor, and had extra ammunition stuffed into clothing

A search of their home turned up 12 pipe bombs and explosives attached to remote controlled cars;

The black SUV where the couple died had been rented some days earlier.

As the FBI took over the investigation, authorities were trying to learn why the couple left behind their 6-month-old daughter and went on the rampage in this Southern California city of 214,000.

“There was obviously a mission here. We know that. We do not know why. We don’t know if this was the intended target or if there was something that triggered him to do this immediately,” said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said after meeting with his national security team that it was “possible this was terrorist-related” but that authorities were unsure. He raised the possibility that it was a workplace dispute or that mixed motives were at play.

Law enforcement experts said investigators may well conclude the killers had more than one motivation.

Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Farook, who suddenly disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair. Baccari said when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.

Baccari described Farook as reserved and said he showed no signs of unusual behavior. Earlier this year he traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a wife, later growing a beard, Baccari said.

The FBI is investigating several possible motives, including workplace violence and terrorism, according to David Bowdich, assistant director of the bureau’s Los Angeles office. He did not elaborate.

However, by Thursday morning, others were more definitive on the shooting’s assessment. GOP candidate Ted Cruz said it was more than likely the shooting was terrorism.

President Barack Obama urged the country to take steps to reduce mass shootings, including stricter gun laws and stronger background checks.

“The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” Obama told CBS.

Farook was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family, was raised in Southern California and had been a San Bernardino County employee for five years, according to authorities and acquaintances. Authorities said Malik came to the U.S. on a Pakistani passport and a fiancee visa in July 2014.

The couple dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with family.

“We don’t know the motives. Is it work, rage-related? Is it mental illness? Is it extreme ideology? At this point, it’s really unknown to us, and at this point it’s too soon to speculate,” Ayloush said.

Co-workers told the Los Angeles Times that Farook was a devout Muslim but didn’t talk about religion at work.

The imam at a mosque frequented by Farook said Thursday there was no indication he had been radicalized, but added that he had not seen the man for about three weeks.

“We never saw a sign of radicalization,” Mahmood Nadvi, imam of the Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah mosque in San Bernardino, told AFP a day after the bloodshed. “If someone becomes nuts, you don’t represent the religion anymore.”

Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, told reporters he last spoke to his brother-in-law about a week ago. He said he was in shock, condemned the violence, and had “absolutely no idea why he would do this.”

In the morning, as the day’s first bursts of gunfire echoed through the large three-building complex, some people locked themselves in offices, desperately waiting for police and texting or making hushed phone calls to loved ones.

“People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office,” Terry Petit’s daughter, who works at the center, texted him.

Petit choked back tears as he read his daughter’s words for reporters outside the center, where social workers find jobs, housing and transportation and provide other services to people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

Olivia Navarro said her daughter, Jamile Navarro, a case manager at the social service center, called her and whispered that she was hiding in a locked room.

“I said, ‘All right, I’ll be there, turn off the lights, don’t make a sound,'” Navarro said. “And that was it.”

Her daughter survived.

That the violence happened at a place dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities — even if they were not targeted — made it even harder for some to comprehend.

“These are all disabled kids, very disabled,” said Sherry Esquerra, who was searching for her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom work at the center. “She gets all the services she possibly could for these kids. So I just don’t understand why somebody would come in and start shooting.”

According to its web page, the center has a client base of more than 30,000 people and their families. It is a privately run nonprofit, the largest of its kind in California with about 670 employees.

FBI agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the center and searched room to room for the attackers. Triage units were set up outside, and people were wheeled away on stretchers.

Seventeen people were wounded, according to authorities. Ten were hospitalized in critical condition, and three were in serious condition, Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said.

Others were marched from the building, hands raised so police could search them and make sure the attackers weren’t trying to slip out.

They had indeed escaped. One witness, Glenn Willwerth, who runs a business across the street, said he heard 10 to 15 shots and then saw an SUV with tinted windows pull out “very calmly, very slowly” and drive off.

As the manhunt dragged on, stores, office buildings and schools were locked down in the city, and roads blocked off.

With police looking for a dark SUV, officers staking out a home in the nearby city of Redlands saw a vehicle matching that description. Public records show the home is a possible residence of a family member of Farook.

Authorities pursued the SUV, and a gun battle erupted around 3 p.m. One officer among nearly two dozen involved in the shootout suffered a minor injury.

A fake bomb — a metal pipe stuffed with cloth — was thrown from the SUV during the chase, said Agent Meredith Davis of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A third person who was spotted running near the gun battle was detained, but Burguan said it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the crime. At a late-night news conference, Burguan also said that early witness accounts of three shooters were probably wrong: “We are reasonably confident at this point that we have two shooters and we have two dead suspects.”

The social services center has two large buildings that require a badge to get in, said Sheela Stark, a member of its board of trustees. However, the conference room that hosts public events such as Wednesday’s banquet is usually left open when visitors are expected.

Trump Makes a BOMBSHELL Announcement About Impeaching OBAMA! (VIDEO)

Conservative Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is dominating all the polls, which infuriates the political establishment and the mainstream media. He speaks the truth, no matter the consequences.

During his recent interview on Alex Jones’ radio show (below), Trump shares his thoughts about impeaching President Barack Obama. Considering Benghazi, the IRS scandals, and Obama’s plan to import thousands of Syrian refugees, there are countless reasons to list why Obama should be impeached and removed from office.

But Trump believes that if Obama’s record is examined in impeachment hearings, Obama would become a “martyr.”

The best thing that we have going with Obama is that he’s got a year left.

Well said!

Then Trump reminded us how pathetic it is for Republicans – after winning elections by historic margins – have failed to fulfill their promises to voters. He also noted how incredible it is that Hillary Clinton is even allowed to run for President, considering her criminal use of a private email server to transmit classified information.

Giuliani: Anyone Who Thinks Shooting Wasn’t Terror Is ‘a Moron’

(America’s Newsroom/YouTube)

By Cathy Burke |

The California massacre at a county complex was unquestionably “an act of terror” – and any law enforcement official who thinks otherwise is a “moron,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says.
In an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,”Giuliani, who was mayor at the time of the 9/11 attack on New York City, said the only question was the motivation for the Wednesday slaying of 14 people at a health department complex in San Bernardino, Calif.

“The question here is not, is it an act of terror? We’re beyond that,” he said.
“When you’ve got two assault weapons, two handguns, you’re in body armor, you got a home that’s booby-trapped, you’ve been practicing to do this….”Syed Rizwan Farook,28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, presumably his wife, shot up a conference room where Farook’s employer, the county health department, was hosting a holiday party on Wednesday, killing 14 people.

“Sure it may have been motivated by some argument in a party,” Giuliani said, noting officials have said Farook left the party angry before returning on a murderous rampage.
“This is pre-meditated,” Giuliani said. “If you can’t come to a conclusion at this point that this was an act of terror, you should find something else to do for a living than being in law enforcement. I mean, you’re a moron.”
“This is an act of terror without any question.”
Giuliani said the motivation is less clear, whether the slayings were part of an ISIS “plot, some other plot, homegrown jihadism or just insanity.”

But he noted Farook’s behavior, including traveling to Saudi Arabia to bring home a bride, is “encouraged by the Islamic State.”
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com

“Farook was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family, was raised in Southern California and had been a San Bernardino County employee for five years, according to authorities and acquaintances.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia in July 2014 to pick up Malik, who is Pakistani. Farook was in Saudi Arabia for two weeks. Malik received a K1 visa, known as a fiancee visa, a U.S. official told CBS News. It’s unclear when the visa was issued.

A source told CBS News that the pair were looking at ISIS propaganda online.”

Hillary Clinton has a history of raking in big bucks from the leaders of Saudi Arabia. $11 million, in fact.

“But the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation has accepted tens of millions of dollars in donations from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Algeria and Brunei — all of which the State Department has faulted over their records on sex discrimination and other human-rights issues.

The department’s 2011 human rights report on Saudi Arabia, the last such yearly review prepared during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure, tersely faulted the kingdomfor “a lack of equal rights for women and children,” and said violence against women, human trafficking and gender discrimination, among other abuses, were all “common” there.

Saudi Arabia has been a particularly generous benefactor to the Clinton Foundation, giving at least $10 million since 2001, according to foundation disclosures. At least $1 million more was donated by Friends of Saudi Arabia, co-founded by a Saudi prince.”

The Saudis are the world’s biggest funders of terrorism, and Clinton has known it for a long time.

“While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority,” the memo states.

Progress was cited by the Saudi government (due in part to “intense focus” by the United States) to proactively investigate and detain financiers of concern. “Still, donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

“In contrast to its increasingly aggressive efforts to disrupt al Qaeda’s access to funding from Saudi sources, Riyadh has taken only limited action to disrupt fundraising for the UN 1267-listed Taliban and LeT-groups that are also aligned with al Qaeda and focused on undermining stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

“More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” according to the memo signed by Clinton.”

WND. CALIFORNIA MASSACRE

LIMBAUGH EVISCERATES MEDIA’S FAROOK TERROR DECEPTION

‘It was just workplace violence. That’s all it was. Nothing to see here’

Radio host Rush Limbaugh said it was “stunning” to watch the lengths media outlets went to Wednesday night to withhold the identity and motivation of California’s terror-attack perpetrator, Syed Rizwan Farook.

“It’s just stunning. It has been eye opening. It has been educational, informative and illustrative to watch the pained efforts of many, primarily in the media and many of their guests, to try to tell people this was not what we all know it is,”Limbaughsaid Thursday. “Before anybody knew anything, the left on their blogs and websites were out blaming right-wing Christians.

Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, killed 14 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. The two brought rifles, pistols, improvised explosive devices and a large amount of ammunition to their rampage. They were killed less than three miles away during a shootout with police.

“I had cable news on, and I was going all over the place, for hours. And I haven’t done that in I can’t tell you how long. And I learned last night why. It was frustrating. It was insulting. It was insipid. Everybody tiptoeing around,” the conservative icon continued. “They were tiptoeing around that it even was a Muslim. They were tiptoeing around that. ‘Well, we’ve got the name, but we can’t go public with the name! It’s a very, very, very delicate situation, all these worldwide activities.’”

Limbaugh said another thing he has never seen before is the speed at which the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, held a press conference — before many networks announced Farook’s name.

The radio host said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush mentioned “ideological extremism” instead of “religious extremism” as a possible motive to try and inoculate Islam from criticism.

“Ah, it was just workplace violence. That’s all it was. Nothing to see here, workplace violence,” joked Limbaugh. “There you have it. Devout Muslim, his father says so, at a government holiday party. Make no mistake, it was a Christmas party. That alone could have been enough to set the guy off, who knows, but I think it was premeditated. It was planned, has to have been with everything we know about what happened.”

Limbaugh concluded his segment by saying Americans need to find the political and cultural will to identify Shariah law as problem. He said the solution to dealing with Islamic terrorism will be found only after citizens find the courage to identify its practitioners as a threat to civil society.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told CNBC on Thursday that the agency is using an “all hands on deck” effort to get examine the couple’s past, WND reported.

Farook recently flew to Saudi Arabia. Law-enforcement sources close to the agency’s investigation told CNN he was in touch with terror suspects currently under investigation.

“They’ll be looking hard at phones, they’ll be looking at social media, they’ll be looking at computers,” Swecker told the network.

President Obama has refrained from calling Farook’s mass killing an act of terrorism.

Neighbor Didn’t Report Suspicious Activity of San Bernardino Killers For Fear of Being Called Racist

According to a local Los Angeles news report, a neighbor of San Bernardino massacre suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik didn’t report suspicious activity at their apartment for fear of being accused of racism.

This is the same politically correct culture that lead to the Ft. Hood shooting when Nidal Hassan, who had been spouting violent Islamic propaganda to neighbors on post andreaching out to Al Qaeda, was ignored for fear of “Islamaphobia” accusations.

The warning signs were all there: the justification of homicide bombings; the spewing of anti-American hatred; the efforts to reach Al Qaeda …
But the U.S. military treated Major Nidal Malik Hasan with kid gloves, even after giving him a poor performance review. And though he was on the radar screen of at least one U.S. intelligence agency, no action was taken that might have prevented the Army psychiatrist from allegedly gunning down 13 people and wounding 29 others in the Fort Hood massacre last week.

See something, say something, is dead.

The Sick Way ISIS Responded Immediately After CA Massacre Is Raising Eyebrows

Speculation about a possible Islamist motive for the San Bernadino shooting continued today with Breitbart News In Israel reportingthat a resident of Gaza who has ties with Islamic State had provided the news site with two messages suggesting ISIS was behind the attack on a Christmas banquetin a facility for mentally disabled.

“The messages came from an encrypted instant messaging service that serves as a Twitter of sorts for Islamic State fighters and their Islamist militant supporters. The Gazan ISIS supporter told Breitbart that the forum had been “ablaze with speculation about Wednesday’s mass shooting inside a California learning disability center. Multiple messages were exchanged celebrating the carnage and speculating whether the attack was carried out by lone wolves acting on behalf of ISIS,” Breitbart reported.

One of the messages was sent by an ISIS or Jabhat Al-Nusra fighter in Iraq by the name of of Abu al-Baraa al-Tunisi. The Jihadi claimed that the shooting was the work of ISIS but admitted he wasn’t sure.

“Oh Allah, we are seeing what is happening now in the country of the donkey, Obama. And it is an act of our partisans of the Islamic State. Even if not, we are going to see it very shortly, our brothers.

“We swear to Allah we will take vengeance even if it will take time, as our sheikhs said. The invasion of Paris won’t be the last one. We are coming to slaughter you. This is your fate, you infidels.”

A second message was sent by somebody with the name Saleel al-Sawarim.

.

Here’s the translation of that message:

“It seems that our fighters in America and our lone wolves started to act fulfilling the call of our Sheikh (Abu Mohammad) al-Adnani (Spokesman and senior official of Islamic State). We swear that we will repeat the same act that happened on 9-11. And as we grilled your bodies in Paris we swear to Allah that we will not rest until we shake you in the heart of Washington as well as in all the capitals of the infidels. We will invade Washington before invading Rome. Our explosives are on their way to you, you sons of infidels.”

The Asian Tribune, citing experts from Vocativ, reportedthat several hours after the San Bernadino shooting that killed 14 people, ISIS began celebrating the murders but stopped short of taking responsibility for the attack.

“Three lions made us proud. They are still alive. California streets are full with soldiers with heavy weapons.

The Unites States is burning #America_Burning #Takbir,” were some of the messages intercepted by Vocativ.

Meanwhile, a man who is apparently the father of 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters who was killed by police, describedhis son as a very religious Muslim:

I haven’t heard anything. He worked in a county office. He’s married and has a kid. We’re estranged because my wife got the divorce, and they are together. She doesn’t want to see me. Farook said he hasn’t seen his son in some time. He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He’s Muslim.

Syed Farook reportedly grew a beard after he went to Saudi Arabia on Haj, the mandatory pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places. The female shooter was identified as Tafsheen Malik, a woman from Pakistan who was living in Saudia Arabia before meeting Farook.

Middle East expert Robert Baer told CNNon Wednesday evening that “the most disturbing aspect of the deadly San Bernardino shooting is that it was carried out using tactics that are employed in the Middle East.”

“What I don’t like about this shooting is multiple shooters… IEDs…I say this very reluctantly, but this has the hallmarks of the sort of attacks you see in the Middle East,” Baer said.